Air India

Ever since Air India has joined the Star Alliance, things have become more and more professional for the airline as it brings in the specialist expertise to improve its service and product standards. With low fuel price helping the airline swing back into a profit. The airline is now learning from its peers and has now introduced paid seat selection for the preferred seats on all its routes. As of May 17, 2016 as long as you fulfill the conditions listed below. You are eligible to select a paid preferred seat for your travel with the airline. With these changes, the airline is clearly showing the intent to generate revenue from its activities on the line of what the other airlines have done for a…

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Jet Airways are once again in news for the reasons related to Etihad. As per the report in Economic Times earlier today, the airline will be issuing convertible bonds worth $300-$400 million to pare down a part of its $1.7bn pile of debt. The transaction is expected to be finalized soon and would be potentially handing out Etihad a right to convert to up to 49% stake in the airline which is the maximum allowed stake for foreign airlines in the Indian carriers. It’s no secret that Etihad acquired the 24% stake in the beleaguered airline only to tap easily into the lucrative Indian passenger market and technically turn Jet into a feeder airline for its hub at Abu Dhabi. The strategy dubbed as the…

In a shocking incident an Air India technician was sucked into the engine while performing pre-flight activities. The incident which happened on Wednesday night at the Mumbai airport was caused by the co-pilot misreading the signals from the ground staff and switching on the engines even though there was staff standing right next to it. Due to this sudden start, the technician was sucked right into the engine. In an email that’s reportedly being circulated, it is mentioned that Standard Operating Procedures such placing chocks, getting clearance from the technician by the pilot were not properly adhered to which led to this unfortunate event. The flight AI 619 which was headed to Hyderabad had to be cancelled as the body was stuck in the engine.…

In what could be termed as a big setback to Air India’s international plans, at least 8 Senior Boeing Dreamliner pilots have either left or are serving their notice period. Given that the airline is pushing ahead with managing its international operation on the back of the 27 Boeing 787s it has on order, losing senior pilots at this critical juncture can prove to be an expensive disaster. The pilots seem to be headed for greener pastures at Spicejet which has recently bounced back after its own fair share of troubles and given it operates a Boeing fleet the pilots make a good fit. Another reason for he pilots choice is attributed to the move of Mr SP Puri who was earlier with Air India,…

India based airlines can rarely be classified as truly low-cost carriers (LCC) and this is due to a mixture of the following facts: Government policy which does not allow spilt up pricing of each part such as baggage and other add-ons similar to what the Ryanair’s and Air Asia’s of the world do. Lack of availability or permission to use secondary airports where airport charges are a fraction of the big airports. It is due to continued policy paralysis that hasn’t allowed development of new airports in decades and has disallowed any up-gradation of other airfields that could be used by such carriers. Instead the government has always played catch up by using airstrips meant for defence use which results in further congestion and lack…

Ever since I took my first flight with Indigo in August of 2006, I have been charmed by their efficiency and how they have been very using their innovative solutions to ensure consistent profitability in the chaotic Indian aviation sector. Recognizing this fact IndiGo has been named on the Most Innovative companies list by FastCompany ranked in 9th place. IndiGo has been at the forefront of innovation bringing in concepts like efficient fleet management and operational efficiencies which have yielded them excellent results and have also become the defining norms for every airline intending to operate in the Indian travel space which has traditionally been the fiefdom of mismanaged airlines like Air India, Kingfisher and Jet Airways. Now bear in mind that IndiGo isn’t like…

With an eye on the lucrative Australia transit traffic that plies on the Delhi-Singapore-Australia network, Air India has introduced the Boeing 787 on the Delhi-Singapore route. Air India is upgrading the service with the double-aisle Dreamliner and increasing passenger capacity compared to the single-aisle Airbus 319 now. The Dreamliner will carry 18 business class passengers and 238 economy class passengers besides much increased cargo and baggage carrying capacity. This capacity addition with the code share with Singapore Airlines is definitely going to bode well for the beleaguered airline. With the impending entry to Star Alliance, these moves by Air India is a clear indication that the airline is trying to align itself with its partner airlines and thereby make sure profitability on the routes that…

Etihad is trying to make the most of the bilateral pact signed between India and Abu Dhabi that allows it to expand the current allocation of 13,600 seats on flights between the two countries to a whopping 50,000. In a statement made by the airline, it stated its intention to use a wide-body Airbus A340-600 aircraft on one of the two daily flights to Mumbai and the wide-body A330-200 aircraft on one of the two daily flights to Delhi. Not only that ,the airline will also operate a larger aircraft which can seat 174 passengers instead of the 136-seater deployed currently on its daily flight to Chennai. This capacity increase is going to be in addition to the Jet Airways flights that will now be using…

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India today tabled a report in the Parliament of India stating that the Civil Aviation Ministry’s decision to change it’s order book from the initial 18 smaller capacity and 10 medium capacity aircraft in January 2004, to 50 medium and long range planes worth about $7.2 billion, and 18 more for Air India charters in November 2004 has imposed an “undue long term financial burden on the carrier” The report comes at a time when AI is already saddled with high debt caused due to inefficient processes and high interest payment on the accumulated part of which was to fund the buying of these planes. Also the botched up merger of AI-IA has caused a huge strain on…